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Phantasm: Special Edition (US - DVD R1)

Booooyyyy! Gabe celebrates the re-release of the first ever bladed ball flick...

Feature

Young Mike loses his mother and father at a young age to an accident and is left to his older brother Jody. Soon after their parent’s death, a friend of Jody’s is also found dead. Mike isn't allowed to go to the funeral, but decides to sneak a post burial peek. While hiding out in the cemetery he witnesses the local mortician lifting his friend's casket single-handedly from the grave. This intrigues the lad. He investigates further and finds a disturbing world of flesh eating, cloaked dwarfs, living fingers that turn into insects, and flying spheres that eject blades and suck the brains from their victims.

So we've all heard Phantasm is a horror classic, right? It's wildly imaginative, energetic, epically scaled; it's thoroughly cemented a spot in cult cinema history. I think the key word of praise is 'imaginative'. The film is a sometimes sloppy mish-mash of horror, sci-fi, exploitation, action, comedy, family film, children's adventure story; it even has some musical elements. It may have bits and pieces that hark back to other films, more popular films, but on the whole there's really nothing like it.

Yet everyone I show the movie to that isn't a dyed in the wool, die-hard horror fan isn't impressed with it. Moreover, a lot of them hate it. I myself, a fan, am usually only able to watch it about half way through before I stop it and put in Phantasm II instead. Why is this? Is Phantasm a victim of hype, or is it factually a simply average film with a solid presence?

Overall, even as a fan, I have to admit that Phantasm’s greatest strength is equal to its greatest weakness, and both are chaos. It's not so much that there are too many ideas floating around, it's more that writer/director Don Coscorelli couldn't commit himself to any of these ideas long enough to maintain interest from fussier modern viewers. Either that or he has the attention span of a gnat. Random is one thing, but making it up as you go along is another, sadder story.

The new gimmicks end up running the story rather than being an organic part of it. The problem is that an unsusceptible audience doesn't like a story without direction. There isn't a lot of time for us to find our footing in the complex universe, and unfortunately the film's calmest moments are its blandest. Really, nothing happens for the first thirty minutes that's particularly interesting. Non-fans might want to fast-forward through the first third if they want to have a good time.

Yet Phantasm still demands a certain level of respect for simply not giving up. There is a brave and unbridled sense of imagination at work. Those who've taken the time to watch children play make-believe will recognize this brand of innocent, idiot savant genius that is found in the cluttered, arbitrary mind of a child. If it wasn't for all the violence, nudity, and language, I honestly think Phantasm could've been a hit kid's flick. There is a warm heart at the film's centre, some strong family values in the face of overwhelming adversity, alien invaders, and most importantly the protagonist is a young boy who gets to ride a motorcycle, drive a muscle car, use weapons to defend himself, and who in the end saves the day. Well, more or less. One might even call the film a grim fairy tale.

I still like the film a whole lot, and I end up recommending it to anyone that asks, it just always seems to backfire. I'm not going to demand non-fans give it a second chance with a different mindset like I would with say, Dawn of the Dead or RoboCop. It's not a film classic worth getting worked up about; although I'm sure plenty of fervent fans will hate me for saying so (see the fifth disc on the R2 special edition to get an idea about these well-meaning people). This 'toss it and see if it sticks' style does end up lending itself very well to a series of entertaining and enduring sequels. More so than any other film series, even Star Wars, the Phantasm movies are my favourite to watch in succession, and without the original the sequels make no sense...well, they'd make less sense.

Video

This disc represents the second R1 release of the film. Back in the early days of DVD popularity MGM released a reasonably sharp little special edition (taken from an Elite Laser Disc), but the video was not anamorphically enhanced. It was good enough for its time, but an update was needed. Different regions came out with better transfers, but it was Anchor Bay UK that released the 'best' version in R2 a little over a year ago. The UK version was made available as a set of all four films, which is the real reason I bought it.

I had assumed that this R1 Anchor Bay release would be identical to the R2 release, considering it came from a foreign arm of the same company, but that it would look a little better on my NTSC TV. However, when directly comparing images from both discs, there are a few obvious differences. First up is the framing, and I've left the mat in my screen caps to illustrate this. It appears that the R2 version is about 1.78:1, and that the new R1 release is a slightly tighter 1.85:1. Yet somehow the headroom is slightly less on the R2 release. This is because the R2 release seems to have been zoomed all around, as a closer look at the left and right will reveal.

Both versions are pretty well worn, and cluttered with artefacts. The compression in the R2 disc appears to be a hair more drastic, as hard edges often appear blocky (this is a problem that runs through all four discs in the R2 set), and noise overwhelms a few sequences. The R1 disc is still quite noisy, but manages better edges, despite some enhancement in bright scenes.

The colours of the R1 disc are warmer than those of R2, as seen in skin tones and interior lights. Details are slightly sharper as well, but the R2 disc manages better contrast overall. This new disc occasionally looks washed out in places the old disc wasn't. The new release is slightly better overall, but not enough for a repurchase to be required me thinks. Those without multi-region access will for sure want to update their non-anamorphic MGM release, however.

Audio

I remember that around the time I purchased the MGM release I had just acquired my first surround sound system. I was excited to hear an old movie revamped for the digital age. Phantasm incorporates an aggressive enough sound design that actually lends itself to a revamp, unlike so many other aged horror films that sound silly in surround. The music is huge, though repetitive, and the sound effects are pretty freaking wacky.

The R2 disc houses both Dolby Digital and DTS surround tracks, and both were satisfying but for the most part just louder versions of the stereo surround track. This new disc is a marked improvement, specifically in speaker discretion and spatial representation. Now when objects move from front to back and side-to-side on screen the corresponding sound is distinctly located in one channel or another. Both Anchor Bay UK and the R1 MGM release were quite bass heavy, especially during the 'inter-dimensional gateway' scenes. This new DTS track is even more relentless, and ending up vibrating the room enough to give me a subtle massage, yet I could still discern the music and sound effects tracks.

I have to admit that despite a few off effects and some occasionally unblended vocals I'm very impressed with this track. I don't think state of the art surround sound is really a good reason to buy or re-buy a twenty-seven-year-old film, but I'm sure plenty of series fans will be excited at the prospect.

Extras

This is a rather loaded single disc set, but there isn't anything here not already made available on previous incarnations. Factually there's quite a bit missing, like the awesome disco remix of the original theme, the extended version of the dull folk-rock song found in the film's early scenes, and the silly Angus Scrimm Masterpiece Theatre styled introduction. I suppose this isn't such a huge loss after all.

First we've got the updated R2 commentary track writer/director Don Coscarelli and actors Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm and Bill Thornbury. The MGM/Elite version featured fan favourite actor Reggie Bannister, who if I remember correctly was pretty entertaining, but the inclusion of the Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm, is a decent trade-off. Scrimm is an entirely adorable old man, who seems to remember more about production than most everyone else. Baldwin, who for all intents and purposes never made it anywhere outside of Don Coscarelli movies, is slightly annoying, but mostly amusing. Coscarelli himself is, as usual, pretty drab. I don't think public speaking is his strongest suite, but he doles out the factoids like a true master.

The fifth disc in the R2 collection (which comes in a replica of the evil flying balls) featured a feature length documentary entitled ‘Phantasmagoria: The Making of Phantasm’ (along with four other fifteen to twenty minute featurettes), which covered the entire series of four films. For this release the folks at Anchor Bay have edited together about thirty minutes of info on the first film, and titled it the same thing. Had the Phantasm 2 rights not been tied up in the US, I'm guessing they would've included the entire documentary. Even at only half an hour the featurette still entertains, but doesn't inform beyond the commentary track. It's followed by something called ‘Phantasm: Actors Having a Ball’, which is a series of outtakes from the documentary's interviews, including a story about the Phantasm crew catching word about a little film called Star Wars that also featured dwarfs in brown robes (Jawas).

From this point on we're back in MGM/Elite territory. Included here is about twenty minutes of rough (and I mean rough) behind the scenes footage. These 'home movies' have no sound, so Coscarelli supplies us with an audio synopsis. This leads us into six deleted scenes, running about ten minutes total. Parts of these scenes were included in the forth Phantasm film, subtitled Oblivion. A lot of the plot was made up as the filmmakers went along, and some of these deleted scenes actually contradict some of the film's rough chronology. They're a good addition, but it's good that they were never reincorporated into the film.

To go with our various trailers and TV spots from the era (and beyond, there's a Fangoria commercial from 1988 featuring Scrimm) is an interview from 1979 featuring Coscarelli and Scrimm. It's decidedly lo-fi, really just a promotional piece, but still a fun little blast from the past. The features come to a close with video footage of a Fangoria convention where Scrimm speaks candidly about his most famous character. The cutest bit is when he recalls all his lines from the first two films, which takes him a matter of minutes (the Tall Man isn't a talky fellow).

Overall

To recap, Phantasm isn't the best film, but it's one of a kind, and I think worth the time. This DVD isn't a great improvement over the Anchor Bay UK release, but is an improvement over the R1 MGM release. The video quality is different, if not entirely 'better', and the DTS track is enough an improvement to call it such. Readers will have to judge for themselves. Extras are solid, but are still rather sparse in the shadow of the epic UK release.

9th April 2007 18:24#8

Fettastic wrote: I don't know what's going on with the Phantasm II rights, but whatever it is needs to be cleared up. Universal owns the rights to the second one, and they have no plans right now to release it. I can't say I'm shocked, they're a terrible company who treats their products like garbage. I hate them so badly!

9th April 2007 19:39#9

I agree that Universal is a pretty piss poor marketing company (seriously, Land of the Dead in June, Serenity in September?), but I don't agree on the HD comment. I just don't think HD is a big deal for movies this old and cheap.

9th April 2007 23:05#10

Unless there's a marketing opportunity involved, Universal is terrible about releasing catalog titles that weren't exactly box office hits. For instance, Flash Gordon is only getting a R1 release this summer because of the new SciFi Channel series that's debuting in July(?).

10th April 2007 21:15#11

I'd say the review is pretty fair. I watched this one two or three weeks ago and while I enjoyed it quite a bit, I'd say around a 7/10 is fair. Based on your previous recommendation, I'm seriously considering seeing the second. Then again, I just watched Dead Silence and I really can't say why (Saw got on my nerves to no end and not in any manner of good way and I guess I was just hurting for a hooky killer puppet movie....can't say why again but at least I know what excuse I've prepared in my defense).

10th April 2007 21:41#12

I had some friends that wanted to see Dead Silence, but I just couldn't go for it. I liked Saw the first time I saw it, bought the DVD, and promptly traded it in. It really falls apart on a second viewing.

If you enjoy stuff like Evil Dead 2, you'll probably like Phantasm 2. It's very energetic.

10th April 2007 23:13#13

I'm kind of a dunce and saw Army of Darkness first and then started working my way back so I've seen Evil Dead and Evil Dead 3 but not 2 yet. I kinda enjoyed 3 but 1 just made me cringe. Don't know how quickly I want to return to that franchise. Will see though. Have you seen Crime Wave, the first real Raimi film written by the Coen Bros. and with Campbell in it? It's rare for a reason: it is flat out unwatchable. I tried and after the 15 minutes couldn't take it anymore. So unforgivably cornbally. Gosh.

11th April 2007 0:44#14

Matt wrote: Unless there's a marketing opportunity involved, Universal is terrible about releasing catalog titles that weren't exactly box office hits. For instance, Flash Gordon is only getting a R1 release this summer because of the new SciFi Channel series that's debuting in July(?).So have they just re-released this due to Phantasm 5 being anounced as being green-lit?

11th April 2007 4:59#15

Worst Nightmare wrote: Matt wrote: Unless there's a marketing opportunity involved, Universal is terrible about releasing catalog titles that weren't exactly box office hits. For instance, Flash Gordon is only getting a R1 release this summer because of the new SciFi Channel series that's debuting in July(?).So have they just re-released this due to Phantasm 5 being anounced as being green-lit? Nah, I was speaking specifically about Universal and their release strategy when it comes to some of their catalog titles. A lot of their older catalog titles are only released because they coincide with the promotion of something else, such as the Universal Monster films coming out of moratorium when Van Helsing was released and the original Battlestar Galactica getting a release right around the time the new version premiered.

Anchor Bay just happened to get the R1 rights recently for the first and third films from Sony/MGM and Universal respectively and they, along with Mr. Coscarelli, are in talks with Universal about obtaining the North Amercian rights to Phantasm II as well so hopefully we'll see a R1 release of that one from them sometime soon too. As for myself, I'm perfectly happy with the five-disc set that AB put out in the UK about a year and a half ago. I got it dirt cheap last Easter when Amazon UK was having a sale, but even now I think it's right around $30 US and still quite the bargain at that price for what you get.

9th May 2007 17:48#16

I think Phantasm work quite well when you realize it's all a young boy's fever dream after the tremendous loss of hisa beloved older brother. It really captures that feeling of not quite being awake, things not quite making sense. I think this is the ONLY film in the Phantasm series worth watching.

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